A retrospective analysis of self-reported symptoms from 761 consecutive new patients presenting to a Neuro Emotional Technique chiropractic clinic

Bablis, P., Pollard, H. and Bonello, R. (2009) A retrospective analysis of self-reported symptoms from 761 consecutive new patients presenting to a Neuro Emotional Technique chiropractic clinic. Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice, 15 (3). pp. 166-171.

Abstract

Purpose

To describe the profile of patients presenting to a private chiropractic clinic specialising in Neuro Emotional Technique (NET) and to identify trends in the presentation of symptoms from these patients.

Methods

761 consecutive new patients presented to a large, multi-doctor chiropractic clinic in which practitioners all adopt a similar philosophical paradigm and practice NET From January 2005 to December 2005, self-referred patients completed a new patient questionnaire, in which they self-reported one primary complaint for why they were visiting the practitioner. Predetermined patient information was entered manually into a database and basic descriptive statistics extracted.

Results

67.3% of participants were female and 32.6% of the participants were between the ages of 31 and 40. 54.8% of patients presented with a primary musculoskeletal complaint and 36.0% a non-musculoskeletal complaint. Of the musculoskeletal complaints, 40.8% of patients presented with back pain, 20.9% with neck pain and 11.5% with shoulder pain. The most common form of non-musculoskeletal complaint was immune and recurrent infections (13.9%), stress and anxiety (12.8%) and depression (10.9%). 41.4% of participants reported a first time complaint, however, of the patients who had had the presenting complaint before 60.7% reported as having the complaint for greater than 1 year. Musculoskeletal and non-musculoskeletal participants had similar pain profiles.

Conclusion

This retrospective analysis is the first comprehensive description of the scope of NET patients and their presenting complaints. The patient profile of this NET clinic has a higher degree of non-musculoskeletal patients than that usually reported in non-NET chiropractic offices, and other forms of chiropractic previously described in the literature. Further cross sectional research is required to determine if this particular clinic is indicative of all NET practices and whether the presenting symptoms, especially the non-musculoskeletal, are resolved with NET.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publisher:	Elsevier Limited
Copyright:	© 2009 Published by Elsevier Ltd
URI:	http://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/32382

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